Ferroelectric metal oxide ceramic materials such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT) have been investigated for use in ferroelectric semiconductor memory devices. Other ferroelectric materials, for example, strontium bismuth tantalum (SBT) can also be used. The ferroelectric material is located between two electrodes to form a ferroelectric capacitor for storage of information. A ferroelectric capacitor uses the hysteresis polarization characteristic of the ferroelectric material for storing information. The logic value stored in the memory cell depends on the polarization direction of the ferroelectric capacitor. To change the polarization direction of the capacitor, a voltage which is greater than the switching voltage (coercive voltage) needs to be applied across its electrodes. The polarization of the capacitor depends on the polarity of the voltage applied. An advantage of the ferroelectric capacitor is that it retains its polarization state after power is removed, resulting in a non-volatile memory cell.
FIG. 1 shows a pair of bitlines (bitline BL and bitline complement /BL). Each of the bitlines includes a group of memory cells (110a or 110b). The memory cells 140 of a group, each with a transistor 142 coupled to a capacitor 144 in parallel, are coupled in series to form a chain. Such a memory architecture is described in, for example, Takashima et al., “High Density Chain ferroelectric random access Memory (chain FRAM)”, IEEE Jrnl. of Solid State Circuits, vol.33, pp.787-792, May 1998, which is herein incorporated by reference for all purposes. A sense amplifier “not shown” is coupled to the bitlines to facilitate access to the memory cell.
The gates of the cell transistors can be gate conductors which are coupled to or serve as wordlines. A selection transistor 130 is provided to selectively couple one end of the chain to its respective bitline (e.g., 130a couples chain 110a to BL and 130b couples chain 110b to /BL). A plateline is coupled to the other end of the chain (e.g., PL or /PL). Numerous bitline pairs or columns are interconnected via wordlines to form a memory block.
Redundant memory elements can be provided to repair defective cells. One type of redundancy scheme is referred to as row or wordline redundancy. In row redundancy, the wordline corresponding to the defective cell is replaced with a redundant row of cells via redundancy circuitry. Redundancy schemes allow some defective ICs to be repaired, thus increasing yield which reduces manufacturing costs.
However, in a chained architecture, the wordlines of a block are interdependent. Due to this interdependence, a redundant element or unit has to be the same size as the block. This means that repairing a defective cell in a block requires replacement of the whole block. Since the redundant element is the same size as the block, it can repair any number of defects within the block. With respect to defects in other blocks, one additional redundant block needs to be provided for each block to be repaired. Thus, conventional redundancy schemes in chained architecture are very inefficient and utilize significant chip area. Additionally, the relatively large number of cells in a redundant element increases the probability of a failure in the redundant element itself.
From the foregoing discussion, it is desirable to provide an improved redundancy in ICs with chained architecture.